Calgary to Halifax - Part 8 - Dinner With The Sibs

The Sibs went out for dinner - withOUT kids. It was so relaxed and ... different. The kiddos were well taken care off (baby tylenol does wonders!! jk) by a responsible babysitter and we ate and laughed and poked fun and told stories of childhood (not always flattering)

Barry and Iris

Bad picture! But the only one of us all at the restaurant.

Our Saganaki being prepared

Iris and the Heids

Iris and I - yes, I'm that much larger than her. She's been my sister in law for almost 20 years, I've come to terms with feeling like a whale beside her.

Me n H

The sisters at Sweet Hereafter

Heidi, Me, Leah, Iris

I had to add this in for the characteristics that an evening with Steve involves: (and sorry for the beachball ... ) check out his hands, actively telling a story and Mark and Barry not even 'barely containing themselves" but not containing themselves at all.

S & J joined us for dessert at Sweet Hereafter and the crazy-ness didn't end when the owners shut the lights off as we walked out the door, the conversation took a turn for the worse when we got outside. ha ha . As usual.

Great night for all involved. It was nice to get out and just be siblings.

Calgary to Halifax - Part 9 - Macdonalds Trying to Get a Picture

At the Halifax Market, we attempt a picture. No problem, right?

Riiiight.
Trying to get the kids to come join - Mark saying 'good luck'

Theres a live wall behind us. Its a bunch of plants (the kind you get in the green plastic trays and bring home and put in your flower garden). Apparently ADD is a family trait ;-)

Almost. Wait. Nate sees something or somone on the level above us.

Oops. Not this one. Nates nose is itchy. Mark is distracted and looks like Jonah is squeezing Quinn's neck. Or is he 'cheesing'?

Screw the kids. Get them outta here .

Nice move. Everyone is normal - my eyes are like a 3 year old fake smiling. (how cool is that wall though??)

Ah Ha! Eureka.

I love my sibs. Weird to think its only half of us.

I Got Hit by a Bus ...

Well, I was IN a bus that got hit by another one.

Mere seconds away from freedom at Kearl last hitch, so mere, that I'd just unbuckled my seatbelt and turned slightly in my seat to get my bag. We were about 60 feet away from parking and ..

*CRUNCH*

I slightly bump against the seat ahead of me and look to my left and sure enough - theres the front right side of another giant bus with its mirror and door flush with ours.

My driver was an old white guy, super sweet and quiet and he just shook his head and motioned with with his hand (not the hand motion he wanted, I'm sure) for the other guy to move. (since the other driver just looked at him and stood up to talk to him but there were no means of communication considering the  juxtaposition of said busses)

Noone was hurt, the drivers just totally inconvenienced - drug tests, etc all because someone wasn't looking where they were going.

The passengers were just like "get us off this thing before they send us to Fort Mac to get tested and not let us off Site and all the other goodness that comes with Safety procedures. I'm surprised we didn't have to each write out a witness report.

And with that, I began my little journey south, then east to visit my fam in NS. Stay tuned.

Later,

LeeLee

Third World Problems - Wait ... I Mean ..

Landing in Halifax to 28 degree weather and after 9 hours in my winter boots, I got in the car and said:
"I gotta get these boots off"

The driver said with scrunched face: do your feet stink?
Me indignantly: No, I have too many pairs of shoes for my feet to stink.
She said: Ohhhh ... such a third world problem.
Me smirking: do you mean FIRST world problem?
Her giggling: yes. yes, I do.

Language Barrier Problems in the Workplace

This time with my boss who is from Scotland and frequently repeats himself slower and louder for my benefit. I'd gotten some gear to go snowboarding and wore the jacket to up north this time seeing my parka is no longer very necessary.

This is how this conversation went:

Him: Thats a really nice jacket. Is it Under Armor?
Me: Yeah, half price at Sport Check.
Him: I really like the teal bits on it
Me: Thanks, my pants match it.
Him: I really didn't need to know that
Me: *puzzled look* what does pants mean to you?
Him: Underpants
Me: Ohhhh .... yeah, no, not what I meant.

A Typical Conversation with Britt

The small camp I'm in houses 270 people and several of them are the Emergency Services people (doctors, nurses, EMT's and firefighters).

Brittany moved back last night from the other camp and as we were walking down the main hall to her room to have tea and catch up - I asked her what wing she was in.

Me: Are you in Wing A?
Her: I think so
Me: With the firefighters?
Her: Whhhhaaat?? Realllly?
Me: Yeah, they're all in Wing A. Do you know that one of them used to work with Bree in Strathmore?
Her: You talk to them??
Me / Her: laugh
Her: You mean they're not just pieces of meat?

Shots on the Go II

So here we go again (i'm wearing my glasses, so hopefully less dumb typos)

I shop at he sweetest little store in Inglewood called Espy and I've gotten to know the staff very well (just ask Scotiabank) so when they had a grand opening for their new, improved (though I like the other store better - it was small and intimate and the floors were hardwood and uneven, etc) store, I wanted to capture the moment with my gal Ashley. Britts came with me and didn't quite know how to work the camera of my blackberry.

  Britt: Opps. Its fuzzy.

Me: k. take another one

Britt: Its not taking

Me: its the middle button - just press it. 

Britt: Oh LeeLee - this is terrible, I'll take it again.

 Britt: Opps. I cut off your heads

Me: k. take one more. 

 Britt: its still fuzzy

Me and Ash: forget it.

(the store owner calls us MaryKate and Ashley - lol)

 I'd just gotten my hair cut and dyed a little darker - and wanted to show Heidi. Plus I was going on a date and needed to know if my outfit was acceptable. 

 Wheee! Registered for the Bluenose Half. Though I've lost a month of training due to illness ... *wah*

 Bree Britt and I went floating down the Bow last summer in Brees new boat. It was groovy. Like a luxury liner of blow up boats.

 That same night (pic from a couple of posts ago) in the cab on the way downtown. (me n' Britt)

 Photo op arriving back at Brees after being shut down by our no sense of humor cabbie. Oh - that still makes me laugh; he hated us. But Bree kept saying, 'this isn't the shortest way home' and Britt and I were like 'don't worry about it, etc'. She said, not whispering, 'but they always try to rip you off'.

 Cool hat I saw at Simons in Montreal. Pretty annoying bits in the front though. Looks like I just cut my hair and went out side in the rain ...

 One of my favorites - Mooresy. This is how she told me I'd left my sunnies at her place in Edmonton.

 This is my desk and those are flip chart notes from a meeting that I had to transfer into an email. You know the expression 'too close to the forest to see the trees'? I was too close to the paper to see the words. I could see about 5 letters at a time. And this was promptly at 5:55 when I was about 5 minutes away from freedom and a workout and ... not being at work. Took me over an hour to do this.

 This truck was outside my gym  - its a giant Dodge painted in red, green, black and white camo. I bet he has guns and shoots gophers. And drinks Pilsner beer. And watches Nascar.

 Cruising Cross Iron Mills with Dad, he turns to me with a straight face and says 'you keep shopping, and come back here to get me in an hour'. (only those who know him will find this funny)

 Forgot to add this to the last post: These are the curtain rod ends for my room. They are as spectacular as you think they are. From Urban Outfitters - I was bringing it in to Home Depot to get a curtain rod that fit.

Wha??? People will buy anything.

 I'm going to write a book.

 This is how I count down my days at work. Some say its what prisioners do.

Really? I ask.

Well I can relate.

 I got this awesome bday card from one of the Managers for another division of our team. That and a Fleetwood Mac cd - he knew I loved music and thought this was 'one for all ages'.

The little bear who was wandering around our camp looking for food. This is taken from my managers office.

And the trap she stayed in for half a day before she met her demise. Poor little thing, but she was becoming too familiar with people which is a danger to all involved.

Thats it !